Berlin, April 28, 2020 – Delivery Hero, the world’s leading local delivery platform, continued its strong growth trajectory in the first quarter of 2020 as improved service, selection and shortened delivery times boosted orders of food and grocery products across the globe.

Despite a 9 million negative effect on orders after mid-March driven by COVID-19, Q1 orders almost doubled (+92%) to 239 million, up from 125 million a year ago, outperforming growth expectations for the twelfth consecutive quarter. In the first quarter, the company added 23 million incremental orders, with more than 3 million orders being delivered in a single day.

Q1 2020’s Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) increased by ​58​% YoY on a constant currency basis to EUR ​2.4 billion, and revenues grew by ​92​% YoY on a constant currency basis to EUR ​515​ million. Delivery Hero’s continued strong performance was driven by significant increase in new restaurants and fast expansion into grocery delivery. The initial negative effect from COVID-19 was swiftly managed and over 50,000 restaurants and 1,500 grocery stores and other local businesses were added in the last 3 weeks of March. As a result, Delivery Hero has seen a quick recovery and a substantial expansion of new customers, an increase of 10% since the beginning of March 2020.

Niklas Östberg, CEO of Delivery Hero, said:

We had a strong start to the year with an impressive growth in order volumes and increased customer acquisition. The instant response to the challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic has led to quick recovery and acceleration of our service offering, responding to changing customer behavior and larger demand for online delivery. We continue to pioneer new and innovative solutions to meet this need. We are particularly proud of pioneering the quick commerce category with delivery of grocery and other items in less than 20 minutes.

Customer Acquisition and Retention Boosted by Improved Service

Delivery Hero is accelerating investments to increase customer loyalty brought about by its extensive platform of consumers, vendors and riders. The company’s offering now includes more choice with over 500,000 restaurants on its platform – the widest and most diverse selection globally outside of China. Delivery Hero offers faster and more reliable delivery with an improved seamless ordering experience that includes an expanded footprint across multiple verticals, including groceries. The demand for groceries has increased substantially as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Delivery Hero has responded by adding 1,500 vendors to its platform during the last three weeks of March, and by continuing to reduce the average delivery time (currently less than 28 minutes, a 20% reduction from last year). In addition, it has increased its own-delivery share of overall orders (currently at 52%). The company continues to increase the number of vendors and improve delivery services in Q2 2020.

Strong Growth in Quick Commerce (q-commerce)

Delivery Hero – Quick Commerce

Against the backdrop of a significant change in customer behavior and the increasing importance of new categories such as groceries and pharmaceuticals, Delivery Hero is pioneering the quick commerce (q-commerce) category – the next evolution of e-commerce. Q-commerce provides ultra-fast deliveries, with Delivery Hero having achieved delivery times of often less than 20 minutes of ordering from an affiliated store. The company has more than 100 Dmarts (local warehouses or often also called Cloud Stores) across MENA, Asia and Americas and this has led to a substantial boost in both orders and new customers.

This fast-growing category offers enhanced choice at any time of the day and is suitable for single-person households. Improved affordability and profitability are achieved through technology, automation and data driven item selection, all of which enhance the consumer experience. The advantage of q-commerce and Delivery Hero’s Dmarts is faster delivery leading to high customer satisfaction, which resulted in 218% monthly growth in customer acquisitions and 26% order growth in March. Delivery Hero achieved this at close to zero marketing due to the surge in demand for online delivery during times of social distancing. The q-commerce market offers significant potential for the continued growth of Delivery Hero, with an estimated size within Delivery Hero markets of EUR 56 billion by 2030 and EUR 448 billion globally.

COVID-19: Adapting to the New Reality While Keeping Everyone Safe

As a key delivery player in the countries it operates in, Delivery Hero supports the entire delivery ecosystem to keep communities safe, healthy and fed during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are working closely with both regulators and governments to help secure the delivery of food, groceries and pharmacy supplies. Specifically, the company has implemented no-contact delivery, contactless payments and heightened hygiene standards to protect vendors, riders and customers alike. To keep local businesses running during an economically challenging time, Delivery Hero is focused on enabling orders for restaurants and other partners through faster onboarding processes and focused marketing efforts. In addition, it has supported the businesses’ liquidity by increasing the frequency of payouts. Most recently, Delivery Hero has launched a EUR 3 million support program to provide riders with financial assistance during the pandemic. Delivery Hero is also supporting local communities where possible; for instance by giving out more than 1,000 free meals per day to healthcare workers fighting the virus.

Unchanged Group Outlook

The COVID-19 pandemic is rapidly evolving and markets have been affected in various ways globally. Delivery Hero’s global set-up and ability to quickly adapt to potential long-term changes in customer behavior has put the company in a strong position to continue to deliver against its goals. The company expects customer acquisition growth to accelerate notably as the pandemic leads to customer expansion beyond typical prior demographic segments. This, in turn, extends the market opportunity for online food delivery in the long-term. At this stage, there is no change to the group guidance. Delivery Hero continues to expect to achieve FY 2020 revenues of between EUR 2.4 billion and EUR 2.6 billion, reflecting a growth rate of around 70% YoY. Adjusted group EBITDA is expected to be between -14% to -18%. This includes an up to EUR 50 million negative impact on adjusted EBITDA in MENA for the full year 2020, resulting from COVID-19 related costs. These COVID-19 related costs will be absorbed in the group guidance. The flexibility of previously announced additional investments of up to EUR 200 million is intended to opportunistically extend Delivery Hero’s leadership positions, where required. Adjusted EBITDA for MENA is expected to remain higher in 2020 than in 2019 and is expected to remain break-even for Europe for the full year 2020.

Emmanuel Thomassin, CFO of Delivery Hero, said:

Despite the current economic environment in our markets, our group outlook for 2020 is unchanged. We are proud to continue to deliver on our priority of long-term and sustainable growth. This is due to our ability to apply technology and market know-how to quickly adapt to changed circumstances.

Financial Calendar 2020

Delivery Hero will hold its 2020 Annual General Meeting online on June 18, 2020 and will publish its Q2 results on July 30, 2020. The company will publish its H1 2020 results on August 27, 2020, and its Q3 results on October 28, 2020.

Delivery Hero – Key Performance Indicators Q1 2020

1) America’s revenues and GMV are impacted by the Argentinian operations qualifying as hyperinflationary economy according to IAS 29 beginning 1 September 2018. Therefore, 2018 revenue is retrospectively adjusted.
2) The company’s constant currency calculation includes reported current growth rates for Argentina due to the effects of hyperinflation.

About Delivery Hero

Delivery Hero is the world’s leading local delivery platform. The company holds a strong position in 36 out of 42 countries in which it operates across Europe, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and North Africa in terms of restaurants, active users, orders, online and mobile platforms. Delivery Hero also operates its own delivery service primarily in over 530 cities around the globe. Headquartered in Berlin, Germany, the Company has over 22,000 employees.
For more information, please visit www.deliveryhero.com

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